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Human Rights Lawyers tortured to extract "confessions"

by Wang Zhicheng

Among the nearly 300 detained lawyers 50% are Catholic or Protestant Christians. Beatings, electric shocks, threats, deprived of liquids to coerce them into admitting they "conspired against state security". The lawyers’ wives threatened.

Beijing (AsiaNews) – Electric shocks, deprived of liquids, threats, and much more: these are the torture methods used by police on several Human Rights lawyers. The complaint comes from their wives who are trying to raise awareness, or from the detainees themselves.

Wang Qiaoling, wife of Li Heping (photo 1) confirmed that two days ago her husband was tortured with electric rods. With him, another prisoner, Wang Quanzhang (photo 2), was treated in the same way. Under torture Li fainted several times.

Li Heping is a Protestant Christian lawyer from Fengrui law firm, who once defended the members of domestic churches and political dissidents. Wang Quanzhang is also a member of Fengrui and in the past has defended members of the Falun Gong and dissidents of the New Citizen Movement, calling for an end to party corruption.

Several of them have defended the communities of Zhejiang during the cross demolition campaign. But for having dared to question the power of the local communist authorities they were branded and sentenced for crimes "against state security". A lot of them were stripped of their professional registration and can no longer practice law, others are in prison.

In recent days, the wife Li Heping released a series of reports documenting the state of Li Chunfu’s mental health, Li Heping’s brother, Chunfu, was also arrested and tortured, to the point he is now showing signs of schizophrenia.

Another lawyer, Xie Yang (picture 3), 44, who also awaits trial for "subversion of state power", during preparations for the court appearance he dared to denounce to his lawyers the torture he has been subjected to, to extort "confessions" from him.

Xie Yang has suffered all sorts of torture. He was forced to sit for more than 20 hours on an array of stacked stools with his feet dangling, under the threat that his movement would be considered "an attack against the police." It was deprived of sleep, water to drink, he was beaten, and has been warned that if he continued to resist, his wife "would risk" dying in a car accident.